The example of Tunisia has inspired ordinary people all over North Africa. Demonstrations, protests and riots have swept the region; most notable have been those in Egypt. Like the Ben Ali regime, the rule of Hosni Mubarak has been profoundly undemocratic and violently repressive. It has also, like its former Tunisian counterpart, been supported by the US: here.

Anthony Shadid, David D. Kirkpatrick and Kareem Fahim, The New York Times News Service: “The Egyptian Army announced Monday for the first time that it would not fire on protesters, even as tens of thousands of people gathered in central Liberation Square for a seventh day to shout for the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. The announcement came after the opposition dismissed Mr. Mubarak’s cabinet reshuffle as inadequate and as concerns over violence were heightened by the presence of security police officers clustered near the square’s entrances, their first deployment there in three days”: here.

Inequalities brought Egyptians to the streets. The US is ranked as the 42nd most unequal nation—Egypt is 90th: here.

2 thoughts on “Post-Tunisia revolutions continue”

The courage of convictions is often measured by the number of feet protesting in the streets.

That was the case recently in Tunisia. It is the standard the corporate mainstream media used during the Iranian “Green Revolution” and, now, in Egypt.

But for far too long, the American media has historically discounted progressive protests in the US – although they give plenty of coverage to the Tea Party and the right wing. Go back to the thousands and thousands of people who rallied in DC against the first inauguration of Supreme Court-appointed George W. Bush. You had to search Google for reports and read liberal bloggers to find out about the outpouring of dissent.

And relatively short shrift was given by the mainstream media to large-scale protests against the invasion of Iraq.

In 2006, however, massive numbers of people – in the millions around the nation – who protested draconian measures aimed at immigrants from Mexico and Central America, did get the attention of the press. And the protests worked, delaying ethnically biased federal immigration “reform” to this day.

But it should be noted that Spanish-language media, not the corporate mainstream media, played a large role in boosting the numbers who turned out and had an impact on spillover coverage.

On Sunday, Common Cause led a group of more than 1,000 people, who objected to an American government manipulated for the interest of billionaires. Their presence shed attention on the secret, annual, plutocratic, political planning sessions of the Koch brothers and their super-rich allies, who were meeting in Palm Springs.

As Van Jones warned the protesters who were “uncloaking the Kochs”:

There is another threat. And it is in our country a graver threat. And it is the threat that comes from excessive concentrations of economic power. Excessive concentrations of economic power in our country pose as big a threat, and frankly a greater threat than any concentration of political power. What we have to remember is that our republic is founded not just on the question of liberty, but also on democracy and justice.

Social and economic injustice will not be ended because the oligarchy suddenly becomes altruistic.

Power – particularly when fueled by financial wealth – does not yield concessions without counter pressure.

That is something that we can learn from the people of Tunisia and of Egypt – and a small gathering of advocates for democracy in Palm Springs.